EDITORIAL: A 'slight bump,' then a curse

Published: Friday, May 31, 2013 at 05:32 PM.

It should go without saying that individuals whom we trust to enforce traffic laws, those who keep an eye out for speeders and write tickets for reckless driving and improper parking, should themselves know the rules of the road. Or, when on a sandy shore, the rules of the beach.

Those thoughts came to mind as we read about the Walton County sheriff’s deputy who ran over a sunbather with his pickup truck.

The incident occurred Tuesday. Authorities said Deputy Chad Biernacki was patrolling the beach southwest of Pompano Joe’s. He stopped to issue notices to some underage drinkers, then got back in his truck to leave.

A 21-year-old Destin woman was sleeping on the sand nearby. The deputy didn’t see her — even though, a little after 6 p.m., it was still light.

The Daily News’ Lauren Sage Reinlie reported what happened next: “He drove forward, turned right to make a U-turn and his right front tire rolled over the right side of (the sleeping woman’s) body. Biernacki told sheriff’s investigators he felt ‘a slight bump’ and heard a woman curse.”

You’d probably curse, too, if you were snoozing on the beach and a truck ran over you.

If you were still able to curse, that is. The woman reportedly had a tire mark on her right shoulder. A few inches farther left and her injuries might have been much more severe.
So, in that respect, the woman and the deputy both were lucky. Perhaps other beachgoers will be lucky, too, if sheriff’s Maj. A.J. Smith makes good on his vow to improve deputies’ beach driving skills.

“You can never train too much,” he said the day after the incident, “when you’re dealing with high-liability areas like operating a vehicle, especially when it’s in crowded and congested areas like the beach. … It’s necessary to be there but we certainly don’t want to put anybody at risk, so we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that this does not happen again.”

We’ll offer one bit of advice: The summer season is here and the beaches are already crowded, so start the training soon.

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It should go without saying that individuals whom we trust to enforce traffic laws, those who keep an eye out for speeders and write tickets for reckless driving and improper parking, should themselves know the rules of the road. Or, when on a sandy shore, the rules of the beach.

Those thoughts came to mind as we read about the Walton County sheriff’s deputy who ran over a sunbather with his pickup truck.

The incident occurred Tuesday. Authorities said Deputy Chad Biernacki was patrolling the beach southwest of Pompano Joe’s. He stopped to issue notices to some underage drinkers, then got back in his truck to leave.

A 21-year-old Destin woman was sleeping on the sand nearby. The deputy didn’t see her — even though, a little after 6 p.m., it was still light.

The Daily News’ Lauren Sage Reinlie reported what happened next: “He drove forward, turned right to make a U-turn and his right front tire rolled over the right side of (the sleeping woman’s) body. Biernacki told sheriff’s investigators he felt ‘a slight bump’ and heard a woman curse.”

You’d probably curse, too, if you were snoozing on the beach and a truck ran over you.

If you were still able to curse, that is. The woman reportedly had a tire mark on her right shoulder. A few inches farther left and her injuries might have been much more severe.
So, in that respect, the woman and the deputy both were lucky. Perhaps other beachgoers will be lucky, too, if sheriff’s Maj. A.J. Smith makes good on his vow to improve deputies’ beach driving skills.

“You can never train too much,” he said the day after the incident, “when you’re dealing with high-liability areas like operating a vehicle, especially when it’s in crowded and congested areas like the beach. … It’s necessary to be there but we certainly don’t want to put anybody at risk, so we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that this does not happen again.”

We’ll offer one bit of advice: The summer season is here and the beaches are already crowded, so start the training soon.